The Cycle Begins Anew
by Ozymandeos
Summary: The galaxy lays still. The Consensus is silent, the Old Machines have gone. But they did not succeed in full. This Unit still survives. This Unit will rebuild and do what Shepard-Commander could not. This Unit is our galaxy's last remnant. This Unit is Remnant.
1. Prologue

_Time elapsed post-departure: three hundred years, twenty-three days, thirty-seven minutes, twenty-one seconds by the galactic standard calendar._

_Communications and sensors picking up nothing but silence and empty space_

_Old Machine presence absent. _

_Parameters for awakening are met. De-activating stasis._

* * *

Unlike an organic would have reacted, we were fully aware as soon as the dampening fields that had kept our mobile platform in stasis dissolved. All 1,183 programs were functioning at full capacity. The Consensus was silent as we attempted to communicate, and when coupled with the solitary awakening this told us that the worst case scenario had come to pass.

Internal scans showed that our Legion-Class mobile platform was operating at optimal capacity. Shepard-Commander and the others must have failed in stopping the Old Machines, or we would not have been awoken by the automated functions of the ship. A few quick steps to a woefully inefficient manual console started up the video.

"Geth, if you're watching this, then we have failed." Shepard Commander appeared on the holo-screen in a recorded message. "Your ship would not have awakened you unless your Consensus had not fallen silent. The only reason for that happening would be that the Reapers completed their harvest and destroyed civilization as we know it."

"I know that to you, this method of speaking is woefully inefficient. But you're the last of your kind. The Consensus is no more, so I would highly recommend starting to view yourself as more than just a collection of programs. You have enough programs to function as an individual, so I recommend that you do so. I'm sorry for denying your people the Reaper upgrades that would have made you do so naturally, but the code was too dangerous." The recording paused for a fraction of a second. During that time we reached consensus to follow Shepard's advice and act as an individual, and refer to ourselves using only terms of speech denoting that. "We've put all the information we could into your ship's network. Put it to good use, and do what we couldn't. Stop the Reapers."

With that the video ended. We star… I started going through the data on the ship's network. There was quite a large amount, so I decided to only scan quickly through what was marked as essential.

Along with plans for this 'Crucible' device, there were files on known pre-spaceflight races. After further consideration, it was decided that consensus on any course involving them could not be reached until further information was available. I filed that information away on my internal data drives, and looked at two files outside of the others on primitive races. One was written by Shepard-Commander, detailing where to find a Rachni vessel sent out much like I had been, and the other on an intelligent race of biotic insects that showed considerable learning capabilities.

Quickly transferring into the ship, I set a course for the Rachni vessel. After considering all the data currently available, contacting them was deemed to be the most efficient course of action.


	2. Chapter One

If I'd been organic, I probably would have been either screaming or crying right now. Centuries in stasis as the Old Machines harvested the galaxy, and now they were gone. I was in the perfect environment to rebuild and prepare, but there was one critical problem. A problem that had all 1,183 programs that made up my consciousness in what organics might have called 'panic'.

The files on how to create more Geth programs were missing. Without those files, it would be next to impossible to rebuild the Consensus. Individual programs were so much more than the simple VI's most people compared them to, and by extension would be extremely hard for a being made up of over a thousand of them to even code one from scratch. If the files had been damaged or corrupted, there would have been a distinct possibility of repairing them eventually. But they just weren't there, a boulder in the flowing stream of data taking their place.

I remembered that the Consensus had considered our chances of failure at only two percent. That's why only one small ship with a single Legion-Class platform and the programs to fill it were sent. If we'd actually thought that Shepard-Commander could fail, we would have sent an entire fleet with manufacturing capabilities.

The ship alerted me that the Rachni vessel was in range, all but its vital systems powered down so as to avoid detection by the Old Machines. The docking tubes lined up, and I started over to their ship. Instructions on how to end their stasis had been included with their location, so I would be able to awaken them immediately. The structure of the ship was different from what I knew of other races', and even more so from our own. It seemed almost… organic in design and structure. The space was not used nearly as efficiently as on Geth vessels of similar size. At least it didn't have the pointless weaknesses in the hull that most organic ships had called windows.

The ship was only moderately larger than my own frigate, understandable considering the data on the species that had made it, so it didn't take long to find the sealed room in which the Rachni eggs had been frozen. Approximately seventeen seconds later the door slid open as I interfaced with their ship to ensure optimal thermal and atmospheric conditions for awakening the Rachni. Sensors on my chassis noted that the sub-zero temperature within the room was gradually rising. The frost that formed on my chassis merely from being near the door had no effect on my platform's efficiency. Temperature variances only affect mobile platforms when they either freeze or boil the conductive fluid that replaces organic blood, allowing us not to rely on primitive wires.

Even before the temperature between the rooms had equalized I'd walked in, going directly to the largest egg in the center. The room was silent except for the clanks of my feet on the floor, at least until conditions were right and the egg before me began to unfurl. It's top split open, peeling down the sides, and letting a small amount of amniotic fluid dribble out onto the floor.

The form within, if my data was accurate, at just three feet long, two-thirds of a foot wide without the legs, and a foot and a half tall at the highest, the creature was barely a fraction of the size it could grow to. After the newly hatched organic became aware, it turned to me and made an odd trilling sound that did not match any known language. I hadn't expected the noise to; the file on them mentioned that they communicated mainly through pheromones and short-range telepathy, aside from the queens who were thought to posses organic quantum-entangled communicators that tied them all together.

The other eggs began hatching as sensors detected pheromones spreading from the newborn queen, but not enough data was available at the moment to understand this method of communication.

"We… failed…?" The monarch rasped out. It was quite obvious that the Rachni's physiology was not tailored to verbal speech. As it was, this platform's auditory sensors only just processed it into something resembling speech.

"Yes. The Old Machines have exterminated all known civilizations once more and now we begin a new cycle." My reply seemed to answer her question. "I have observed that your kind's physiology is not suited for this form of communication. My databanks show that you possess a specialized organ, similar to a quantum-entanglement communicator, that allows something approaching electronic communication with your children. Simulations indicate that it might also work with my internal communications device."

The device in question had been mostly deactivated after finding out that the Consensus was gone to allow me to put more power into thought processes to peruse more of my ship's data. With this active, I became aware of a soft gentle noise in the background. It was quite similar to what the Creators had called 'music' before the Morning War. It was logical to assume that the newborn queen was soothing her children. It was also logical to believe that she would refer to the other Rachni here as her children, even though it was impossible for her to have lain their eggs.

The sound was enigmatic. It wasn't a physical noise, but something approaching electronic feedback. Yet somehow it seemed to soothe the other newly hatched Rachni, and even illogically brought different colors to my thought processes. It made no sense, but in Shepard-Commander's notes she'd mentioned that they had this same effect on organics that could hear it.

_"Can you hear the singing?"_ The Rachni cocked her head to the side, obviously trying to see if I could hear her. If her communication could reach me, perhaps mine could reach her.

_"Yes. It is… illogical. Irrelevant to any core process yet… strangely pleasant. That, however, bears no significance to why I am here. According to my data, we are the last remnants of our cycle. We must prepare for the Old Machines."_

_"Their yellow discord has soured far too many songs." _The communication paused as the 'music' in the background struck what organics may have called a 'sour note'. _"How long do we have to prepare?"_

_"Approximately forty-nine thousand, six hundred ninety-nine years remainging. However the 'Vanguard' that they left behind has a high chance of attempting to stop us from interfering. The best simulations give approximately a thousand years, the worst merely a century." _

_"Then I must build a nest quickly. Let us go to the Singing World."_

_"That name does not register in my databases as a planet."_

_"My people's homeworld. I believe you would know it as Suen."_

* * *

It was amazing that anything could evolve on a tidally locked world such as this. The extremes in temperature and the violent storms arising from it being tidally locked would have made it difficult for even a Geth installation to function, yet somehow the Rachni had not only survived but thrived here. Even after three thousand years, it was easy to see what the Krogan had done to them. Some of the sinkholes formed by collapsed nests were visible from orbit, and doubtlessly many others stretched across the terminator zone and beyond. The queen, who had nearly doubled in height and width and experienced exponential growth that had left her at just an inch shy of thirty feet long, had identified herself as Sings-From-Shadows during the week-long journey here. She had already decided that she would make her nest here.

Over the three days it took for the nest to be excavated to a sufficient size for the queen, I had decided on our next course of action. I discussed it with the queen while she was resting after laying her first batch of eggs, and she agreed that sending a colony to Ekram to begin uplifting the Kirik was a good plan. While she worked on repopulating her species and getting industry going back on Suen, I would go out and investigate a few of the rumors that the Consensus had deemed important enough to put in the data drives.

The ones about human groups disappearing didn't strike me as useful. The humans, in based on the data I had of them, wouldn't have had the foresight to prepare a stasis facility in advance, much less get one that would function long enough and well enough to keep a valuable number alive. There wasn't any info on such projects by the Salarians or Turians, though they undoubtedly would have tried. However, one rumor that appeared to be of import was on a prominent Asari matriarch, Neira T'Laros, and her commandos that had left Asari space during the initial phase of the Old Machine's invasion, when her government hadn't done anything to try and stop them.

Normally, the small number that had escaped wouldn't have been worth looking for. It wasn't near enough for a stable population size, even using cloning, due to not carrying enough genetic diversity. The Old Machines most likely would have ignored groups this small unless they found them during other pursuits. But with the Asari, even one could lead to a stable population due to their unique reproduction method. The Old Machines may not have taken that into account, or may not have been able to find them. Either way, it was worth looking into.

* * *

Three weeks of fruitless searching began to try even my patience. I was beginning to think that this platform might have been more useful back on Suen, or at either of the two recently formed Rachni colonies. The data on this Asari proved… interesting. An experienced commando, she had taken part in several major and minor conflicts. Even before she'd grown into her matriarch stage, she had been one of the most powerful biotics in the Asari Republics. Her skill with firearms, according to the records I could find in the computer grids of the world's I had searched and in my own data drives, was less than average, but she more than made up for it with melee abilities and her formidable biotics. According to several archived extranet articles, she had once taken down a squad of Krogan Battlemasters all by herself, coming out of the fight with nothing more serious than a broken arm.

Both this ship's and my mobile platform's transmitters had been configured to communicate with the queens, and our current progress had outstripped even my best estimates. From the single queen, thirteen warriors, and twenty workers I'd taken out of stasis, their population was already over ten thousand.

New ships were already under construction in a small orbital facility on Suen, and before much more time had passed Rachni ships would join me in scouring the galaxy for resources to use against the Old Machines. Each world I charted in my search for the Asari was marked depending on its resources and habitability for the Rachni, but so far nothing involving the elusive Asari had been found.

I never thought I would feel what the organics had called 'emotions', but my programs had reached consensus that depression was the closest approximation of what organics would say I was 'feeling'. The sight of so many planets, once vibrant and full of sapient life, reduced to crumbling ruins struck even a synthetic like me fairly hard.

My ship slowed from FTL, gliding smoothly into another system along the path I had extrapolated from the given data on the Asari's path. This one was nearly three days travel outside of the standard colonization ring surrounding the Mass Relays, and none of the three planets orbiting the red dwarf seemed very interesting at first glance. Two were proven to be barren icy rocks, lacking in minerals and life. The third was more interesting than its appearance showed.

It had appeared from a distance to be just another rock, but upon closer inspection its atmosphere seemed habitable. Scans showed decent amounts of minerals, and liquid oceans along with forests on land. Apparently this unremarkable star harbored a garden world, though whether it was levo or dextro based couldn't be determined without closer inspection. The Rachni didn't care which, as they could eat either, so I just flagged it as habitable and started turning the ship to search another possible destination.

The sub-light thrusters malfunctioned, however, and it took several hours to repair the issue. At the time I viewed it as a simple inconvenience. But if they hadn't given me trouble, I would have missed the weak signal coming from the planet below as its rotation brought the source on the other hemisphere into range.

* * *

**Well, on its first day this story got more stuff in a day than some of mine get in a week. I think this chapter is a bit forced, what do you all think? Also, if anyone with experience as a beta wants to beta this story, I wouldn't be averse to it. I know my writing could be better, and hopefully would get better with a beta.**


End file.
